Wattis Brothers

The Wattis Brothers was a 19th-century railway contracting firm operated by three brothers Edmund Orson Wattis Jr. (1855–1934), Warren L. Wattis (1865–1928), and William Henry Wattis (1859–1931). It was founded in the early 1880s by William and Edmund to build railways for the Western expansion of the United States.^[1]

In 1881, all three brothers operated the railway contracting firm and partnered with,^[2] or work for,^[3] the Corey Brothers in their first construction job,^[2] building the Oregon Short Line Railroad lines in Idaho. They then went to Canada to work on the Canadian Pacific Railway, where their horses died of disease and they struggled to work through heavy snows.^[3] Wattis Brothers then joined with the Corey Brothers in the Corey Brothers & Company organization to meet the obligations for completing the railway line.^[3]

Wattis Brothers prospered until the Panic of 1893, a depression that affected the entire country.^[1] The company went broke after their bank failed.^[3]

Wattis Brothers founded the Utah Construction Company in 1900,^[4] and Thomas Dee and David Eccles later became significant investors in the railroad construction organization.^[5]

References

1. Eileen Hallet Stone (May 25, 2016). Historic Tales of Utah. Arcadia Publishing Incorporated. p. PT74. ISBN 978-1-4396-5621-1.
2. Sue Bybee (2010). Uintah. Arcadia Publishing. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-7385-7900-9.
3. "Edmund Ormond Wattis" (PDF). Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of the Interior. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
4. Sarah Langsdon; Melissa Johnson (2012). Legendary Locals of Ogden. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 14–15. ISBN 978-1-4671-0030-4.
5. Ronald E. Bromley (January 14, 2013). The last train to leave Cimarron, New Mexico: Why the trains left Cimarron. AuthorHouse. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-4817-0002-3.